Motorola teams with Verizon for TV tablet

Emma Woollacott, 4th August 2010

Motorola is reported to be developing a tablet specifically targeted at the television market.

Motorola's been dropping hints about a tablet for some months now, and according to the Financial Times, the device could launch this fall.

It will be offered in conjunction with Verizon, offering Verizon's FiOS pay-TV service - for which Motorola already makes the set-top boxes. The new tablet could be offered in conjunction with a discounted FiOS service.

The ability to offer pay TV services would mark it out from the iPad, which still lacks any television subscription plan. Currently, Apple users can download movies and TV shows via iTunes, or stream them using services such as Hulu.

The device will have a ten-inch screen - marginally bigger than the iPad's - and will be smaller and lighter than the iPad, the FT says.

It will have two cameras - one faces the user for videoconferencing - and can be used as a hotspot to share its wireless data connection with nearby devices.